Battle of Long Tan anniversary: Australian veteran recalls against-all-odds victory

Fifty three years ago Digger Laurie Drinkwater and his comrades fought Australia's deadliest battle of the Vietnam War.

The Battle of Long Tan on August 18, 1966 that cost the lives of 18 Australians and hundreds of Vietnamese troops has joined the roll call of against-all-odds military clashes.

Today is also Vietnam Veterans Day that honours the 60,000 Australian service men and women who served in the conflict.

Fought over a rubber plantation in torrential rain, 105 soldiers from D Company 6th Royal Australian Regiment and three attached New Zealanders beat off a force of Viet Cong fighters and North Vietnamese troops estimated to be up to 2,500 strong.

But when the soldiers of D company walked from their base to search for reported Viet Cong forces, they had no idea they would be so outnumbered.

"When we set out we still did not know how many were out there. We thought there might by a platoon (of about 30 soldiers). But no one was expecting we would come into contact with such a large force."

Those fresh supplies, accurate artillery fire from a nearby Australian base and the arrival of reinforcements in armoured personnel carriers helped drive the enemy off and stop D Company being overrun.

HIGH COST TO BOTH SIDES

The bodies of 245 enemy soldiers were discovered, but there was evidence that many more bodies had been carried back to Viet Cong lines.